Caliper brakes are well known in the field of parking brakes, and are commonly used on off-road vehicles such as construction equipment to supply a braking force when the vehicle is stationary. These parking brakes must provide a relatively high braking force in order to prevent movement of vehicles that are often extremely heavy, and must also be reliable.
All types of parking brakes typically require some type of manual activation by an operator, and subsequent manual deactivation of the brake when the vehicle is to be moved. While such manual activation or deactivation of the brake is not difficult or time consuming, it is often easy to forget. It is a fairly common for an operator of a vehicle to either forget to activate a parking brake after parking, or to forget to deactivate the parking brake when later trying to drive the vehicle. In the first instance, where the parking brake is not engaged, a dangerous situation may be created because the vehicle is more likely to begin moving without an operator at the controls if the parking brake is not engaged. In the second instance, where the parking brake remains engaged when an operator attempts to move the vehicle, a high amount of stress is placed both on the parking brake system and the motor.
In view of these problems, it is evident that the need exists for a reliable parking brake that requires no manual activation or deactivation by an operator.